For a number of years, the Bridgeport High School Alumni & Friends Foundation has hosted and facilitated a strawberry sale. This year, that isn’t going to happen.

“We really need to start preparing for the strawberry sale in January and we just did not feel comfortable with where our point of sale was going to be,” said BHS Alumni & Friends Foundation President Chuck Steele.

Annually, the berries have been delivered in mid-May to the concession stand at Wayne Jamison field, where customers pick up their orders. But with construction of a new Johnson Elementary School approaching, the foundation wasn't sure earlier this year whether that project would affect its pickup system, Steele said.

“That, combined with some turnover on the board and trying to get reorganized a little bit, we just thought taking a year off from the sale would serve us well,” Steele said. “Obviously, we hated to do that because it’s kind of a staple of what we’ve done in the past – at least outwardly in the community – but we thought it was the right thing to do.”

Steele said the board tentatively plans to host the sale again in 2018 and hopes community members will come back and support it.

Though the strawberry sale , as well as the year-round sale of BHS apparel, helps with fundraising goals - proceeds used toward a number of college scholarships offered annually – it is not a primary fundraiser and this year’s scholarships are still secure.

The majority of the association’s fundraising – up to 95 percent – comes through private and corporate donations, Steele said.

The foundation now looks forward to this year’s BHS Alumni & Friends Foundation Hall of Fame dinner, to be held Sept. 30 at Bridgeport Conference Center. At that event, the 2017 hall of fame members will be honored. Nominations were open through March 15, after which the foundation made its selection for this year’s honorees. That information will soon be released, Steele said.

The Bridgeport High School Alumni and Friends Foundation was formed in 1996. The awarding of scholarships started just a few years later. In 1999, two $500 college scholarships were awarded. Last year, 24 scholarships – totaling over $51,800 – were awarded to BHS seniors. (See scholarship recipients to date HERE.)

The Hall of Fame recognition began in 2007, honoring those who make a mark in the world through their profession, service and generosity. By honoring these individuals each year, the foundation hopes to inspire BHS students and others to go forward and give back with purpose. (See Hall of Fame members to date HERE.)